Here's one that im having trouble addressing at performance level.

Players are being continuously caught ball watching which is leading to far too much one out defending obviously opening up holes in what should be a compact defence.

Short of calling for all players to drop behind a certain point before actively defending im struggling for ideas, obviously it would be preferable to win the ball higher up the park, but unless we can defend as a unit in that area its not going to work

It is a really tough thing to coach.

As long as defenders maintain position where they can view the attacker they are marking, and the ball beyond it, it is good.

It is when the attackers perform runs behind the defender, so the defender has to keep sight of the ball, but then has to worry about what is going on behind.

Zonal marking can help address this from set pieces. Players then only have to worry about a zone to cover.

Why don't you contact your nearest FFA Technical Department? I know ours would only be too pleased to have someone come out with your team to assist you, most likely the state TD. I'm not sure whether you are closer to ACT, where you could talk to Pat McCann or Neil Orr, or NSW country where you have Ken McColl or Jamey Muir .

Initially this response has been targeted at set pieces.





In open play you could try this.


When you want your defence to stay compact it can be addressed with your back four and two DMs, or whatever formation you use, to do a defensive 6 plus keeper, playing against an underloaded attack, say starting with 4 players. So you initially have a 6 v 4.

This can progress as the defence and midfield becomes more compact and disciplined.

The attacking load can be increased to equal numbers, 6v6, as they improve maintaining shape, without individuals impulsively charging the opposition ball carrier, when they don't effective distancing support from supporting defenders.

Also, the keeper, needs to coach the defensive line, with at least one CB, trying to coach the defensive mid line, to keep focused on open play and stay cohesive and compact, would help in your Game Training phase of the session.






Edited by Decentric: 12/5/2015 01:00:48 PM

I find this an issue in every level, even in seniors.

The main way I've found to reduce it is when your team has a couple of really good communicators that keeps everyone in line. Also a well-drilled defensive line, that all players are wise enough to understand and implement, will help reduce ball watching as they'll know they need to be in a certain place depending on the context.

I would rather give the game away all together than communicate with either of these. The fact ive had to talk to either of them in the past about anything still annoys me.

The set piece side of things is easy to coach defending against.

What you say about ensuring your defenders are in a position to see both the ball and attacker is something i can communicate simply that in all honesty had slipped my mind.

The joys of not coaching fulltime i guess

Two very fundamental individual-positioning techniques I learnt early on were:
- always see ball and the guy you're marking in defence.
- always see the ball and the goal you're attacking in attack.

Chances are if you can do either depending on the context of the game and others around you, you're in a pretty good position.

Really happy with the session i took last night. The players responded brilliantly and as long as the gods are good it should be of great benefit come saturday. I focussed on 1v1 defending, obviously with the hidden learning of 1v1 attacking, followed by 2v1 defending and finally went into a rondo with 5 attackers v the 4 defenders, the attackers with the instrauction to move the ball side to side and occasionally attack through the centre forcing the defenders to shift left and right together. This allowed me to cover where the fullbacks should position themselves when the ball is on the opposite side

Not sure how often you train, but because the players did it well at practice doesn't mean it works well in match scenarios.

It takes a while for things to sink in. Last year in a NPL club the senior women played their best football at practice. In match scenarios, they could never replicate it when it counted. Against the reserve team at training , the senior team played fabulous football, that couldn't be reproduced against more intensive squeezing against better opposition on match days.

In the rondo, did the 5 attackers assume realistic shape in your team's preferred formation? The back four is relatively easy to coach in BPO. Or did you just focus on the defensive team's shape, communication and cohesion in BPO?

I'd originally answered your first post in response to being at stoppages. In open play I have all more ideas, and what the KNVB suggests as opposed to FFA in BPO.

Did you use the line of sight , ball and player, idea?

Delighted the session worked so well. This hard stuff, they I enjoy least in coaching. Really hope you see the results in your next match scenario.:)

This stuff is all not that enjoyable for defenders, unless they see decidedly better results on match days.




Edited by Decentric: 13/5/2015 10:08:02 AM

Never heard this one before.

One learns something every day.

Thanks, PV4. This could be very useful.=d>

It is pretty useful, in the right situations. A lot of attackers seem too happy to face the ball, with their back to goal, and this can cause them to bury themselves in an area that the ball has come from, and can be quite congested.

If a striker is facing the ball with his back to goal, he need only drop to either side, open his body up, and he'll be able to see the ball and the goal he's attacking. Which in turn encourages the defender to follow him, and thus leaves a lot of space from where he has come from.

Obviously there are some terrific players who can play with the back to goal, but for most players it is important to teach them this technique which in turn encourages them to always open their body up to play the ball when receiving.

Excellent stuff.

FFA is constantly educating us to think of the importance of body position or body shape.

Unlike New Signing, I have FFA staff coaches to provide info at any time of things I do't know about.The only things none have been sure about tare the different modes of pressing - full, half and partial. One other has been specific 1v1 attacking evasion techniques, apart from SAP coaches. Some are really weak on this.



First time I've heard this with the ball and goal idea, but it makes a lot of sense. It is difficult for most players to play with their back to goal.

Also, the vacant space it creates by moving, creates space for a teammate.

The ball and goal idea also makes sense in other contexts.

Think about a right back having the ball, and the centreback wants it. If he runs towards the right back, and has vision only for him, once he receives the ball he is facing the sideline, where the ball came from. If before receiving it he was able to take a step or two backwards, and possibly sideways, he can open his body to see the ball and goal. In doing that, he creates space in front of him that may offer an option for the RB to play it to the other centre back or midfielder that previously the CB would have been filling the space of. And when the CB receives the ball in his ball+goal position, he has the entire field to look towards, rather than just the sideline.

It is a fairly useful technique for most situations.

This is what I call checking. We are trying to encourage player to use fakes to wrong foot defenders by moving one way, then moving in the opposite direction devoid of the marker into newly created space.

In the 1v1 attacking skill thread , the shoulder feint, in reverse with back to goal, works. That is the same move , devoid of the ball, with back to goal.

True.

One thing I learnt from 14 year old players I coached who had been privy to the SAP, was CBs, often after playing the ball, tracked backwards diagonally.

This enabled them to receive the ball again in a body position to play forwards, and across goal, like you suggested.

At the same time they would always see the opposition goal with their correct body shape. None of the other players who had not been in SAP had developed this. As I think about this, this could be a really useful coaching point in future coaching.

Few of our coaches, even senior NPL ones, would've known this before the advent of the new FFA NC coach education.

Something that I find is extremely undercoached is the physicality that should be used when executing these moves - particularly as the players get older and into much more physical leagues.

These kinds of checks, in senior football, should be used in conjunction with physically bouncing off a defenders body, giving him a nudge, stepping on his toes, just in general being a physical pest. Wrong-footing a defender is fine, but particularly at a senior level you also need to incorporate a bit of extra physical "bite" to really put off a defender.

Speaking from a defenders point of view, nothing kills me more than an attacker stepping on my toe. It takes my focus off just-the-attacker, as I now have pain.

All of this should, and definitely can, be done without alerting attention of the referees when done right, and are vitally important the older you get.

Tim Cahill is the expert of this kind of "grubiness" for lack of a better term. He has almost perfected the art, and reaps some terrific rewards from it.

I'm surprised refs don't pick the toe treading up, even though hard to see.

The shoulder nudge seems more within the parameters of fair play.

Good stuff.

As we would all learn through practice, you can get away with a tonne of stuff if you perfect the art properly.

Speaking about Cahill again, it is rare if he has a defender marking him that Cahill won't be reaching back, holding onto the defenders shirt. All he needs to do from there is bring the defender close to him, through the use of literally pulling him close, and then use his arm to foreably (sp) push him back, and then bounce off him to get a few yards of space from him. Cahill is one of my favourite strikers in the world, solely because of how physical he is.

Back on the ball-watching topic, I reckon if you can ingrained the ball+attacker in defence and ball+goal in attack into your kids minds, you'll find there is far less ball-watching as they're always thinking and changing position in relation to how the game unfolds in front of them.

PV4 is correct.

You need loud communicators/leaders in the defensive line that can marshal the troops and keep them focused.

Skill is obviously important but if you have a defensive line that are skillful yet not communicators then you will find it gets caught out.

You have also seen the emergence of the keeper/sweeper who also looks after his defensive line too but they are exceptional players and not many of them are around.

I get the defensive part of that. But as an attacker who likes to make runs in behind all the time, I don't quite understand the attacking perspective.

Do you mean that as a defender Peev?

Something I learnt from the KNVB, not touched on in the Senior C Licence I did with FFA, is that every player is responsible defensively, for coaching the line in front of them to maintain defensive shape in Defensive Transtions and Ball Possession Opposition.


---------------------------------K



RB---------------CB.....................CB.................LB


...................DM-------------------------DM

------------------------------AM

RW................................S....................................LW



Ideal distancing is 10 - 15 metres between and within the lines. The size of the whole outfield team shape should be circa 40 metres by 40 metres, depending on the size of the pitch.


*The keeper positions the back four in BPO.




*The right CB keeps the right DM in position. In attack or Ball Possession phase of play, the right CB also keeps an eye on the RB pushing further forwards.

The left CB positions the left DM in BPO and the LB going forwards.




*The right DM keeps an eye on the AM and the Right Winger.

The left DM keeps an eye on the Left Winger and the AM to maintain defensive shape.




*The AM positions the central striker.



*If a team uses the half press,

that is to get all players get behind the ball if the ball is lost in the attacking half,

with the team taking up the above formation starting with the number 9 taking up a position just over the half way line,

the team really only tries to win the ball back more aggressively in the defensive half.




It is easier to implement the half press than the full press to win the ball back further up the field.

At lower than professional level, the aforementioned half press is easier to coach. That is, keeping the shape compact and disciplined, when losing the ball.



I should've posted this a while back, New Signing, but I knew it would take some time.


All one's players need to keep an eye out for maintaining team defensive shape by coaching the players in front of them, and having an awareness of where the ball is.




The next step is the timing of the squeezing within that half press. As one player pressures the ball carrier, one should have at least two players within optimum distancing to make a challenge on some of the nearest opposition players as the pass is attempted. If the opponents hoof it, then they've already lost possession as the ball is in a transitional phase for a 50/50 contest.



If you are reading this PV4 , I wonder if you've done this at NPL level?


Edited by Decentric: 16/8/2015 12:52:49 PM

To coach this on the training track, one starts with the keeper and the back four playing against maybe 2-3 attacking players. As they get better the attacking players can increase to 4 and even overload to 5.


The next step is adding the midfield defensive line. This where the keeper and 7 outfield players initially play against about 4 attacking players, increasing them to the same number of attacking players, 7, adding a keeper for useful 8v8 games.

Eventually the whole team can be used to defend 11 v 11.

The key is getting the defence and the midfield to combine effectively.

I have to say, modern coaching sure is complicated. Interesting of course, but complicated.

The original question was regarding ball watching. This is one of the most difficult things to teach, imo, and is probably the most important skill in the game. I have great concerns that stopping young players from playing 11 v 11 games (undecided about field sizes yet) is having a detrimental effect on their development, because while it is great for teaching 1/1 type skills, the players lose awareness of the fields. I think it has become a major problem at socceroos level, particularly in our defence.

In reality, the only way for players to learn is to be constantly shown and told about what ball watching is and why it is wrong. This is actually often very hard to see from watching television games, and to be honest, even from the sideline or from certain positions on the field. My recommendation is that every time a player gets caught ball watching in a training game, you immediately stop the game, freeze the players and explain to them what went wrong and what they should have done. Of course, you need to be careful that you, yourself are actually giving good advice, which is not always as easy as it sounds. Hopefully your player will listen to what you say and more importantly learn from it.
Another tactic, when this occurs in a game, is to use chalk or markers on a blackboard made to look like a soccerfield. Be sure to mark the goals, the 6 yard box and the 18 yard box, the kick off spot and the centre circle. The penalty D is optional but is probably preferred on most set ups i have seen used.

Sometimes people use the method of making the big table in teh dressing sheds a blackboard, but i dont see this as effective and i would stick to the black board on the wall. I imagine with modern technology an ipad might sometimes be used. Personally i would not recommend this because it is too small to see angles properly. Also make sure that any such program if you must use it has only 2 dimensional graphics.

Back to the exercise, you should Mark X for defenders (or your team) and o for attackers. Plot where the players should ahve been standing runs off the ball should have been made (for both teams) and let your players learn from the situation. Even ask them where they think they should have run and why etc.

You yourself need to listen to their reasons because sometimes they may have had sound reasonings for doing what they did, and sometimes this can be fixed by getting other players to do something differently, positional swaps etc. The possibilities really are limitless and there is no two scenarios that are the same.

With regards to instructing the player, i think you need to first have your defender concentrating on standing goal side of their player. this is the most important thing. Then you need to explain them to mark the most dangerous player, not just the player with the ball. I found with some players you do need to explain to them about how one person sometimes has to mark two players and how this is done.

The final step in my plan would be to try to impress them, taht as soon as you lose the ball, you need to concetrate as a team on getting your shape and structure before you ever attempt to jump in or press as it seems to be called nowadays. When you do press or squeeze, it should only be through a concerted team effort and should not be one out. it is far more important that they are thinking about getting their shape right.

I would tell the team leaders to use the magic words "get your shape" every time you lose the ball. As a coach, you cant be afraid to use the occassional blast, but you need to be very cautious with it and remember that different players will react differently. Your best tactic will probably be the subs bench, and i wouldnt be afraid to use it for ball watchers, especially if they are your star players. If you can teach these type of players not to ball watch, it will improve everyones attitude and game because of it.

In modern football, i believe taht at most levels, if you solve this problem you will go along way towards winning your league.

Not sure if the above thinking is of any use to prospective coaches or if it is the type of things taught in the curriculum or KNVB but i think this is the starting point for any coaching assignment.

Something useful I've learnt from you, Bender Parma.

I should get the team to all chant BPO in the Defensive Transition.

One should always view any session/convo as a learning opportunity.

This needs to be done on the training track before match day.

To my horror, I had 13 and14 year old rep kids standing on the wrong side of their opponent at stoppages. ](*,)

I was so busy focusing on other aspects of play, it was only the assistant coach pointing it out to me I realised it was occurring with a few players.#-o

Your one sounds better as a crowd chant. I can imagine 100,000 at the MCG.

B...P....O...!... B...P...O...!B...P...O...!

There are many things to improving defending - ball watching is a bit of a broad term.

I like my teams to press but because when we press, the lines between the front 3 - midfield 3, midfield 3 - back 4 must be compact vertically and horizontally. I play with two CM's and a DM so I ask the CM closest to the ball to block the path from the opponents DEF to MID. This will suit your team when playing teams that play out from the back.

However, you need to have a variation for when a team plays long balls. Mine is simple. When a long ball is sent, one of the defenders challenges and the other 3 drop back and narrow a few meters in case of a mistake.

Generally, I focus on the defenders defending in a line and the team being narrow when BPO. I'm not going to go into more detail about the cues. That is something every coach needs to work out for themselves. I've been pretty successful defensively since I did my C license in 2013. Funnily enough, it was Ian Crook that gave me the initial idea at the course which lead to what I've been applying. I conceded 55 goals in 22 games in my first year of coaching so I had to be open minded about everything.

In FNSW State League, the team I coach had the 2nd least conceded goals in 2014 and the least conceded goals in 2015.